Exploration
by Pheonix500
Summary: The baby is on the loose! How much trouble can one little mutant turtle/salamandrian hybrid be? Not TTB. Written with Irrilia, the OC belonging to the amazing and talented Myrling from DeviantArt.
**Exploration**

 _2016_

 **Disclaimer: I have no claims on anything TMNT, created by Eastman and Laird and currently owned by Viacom (to the best of my knowledge). This is just for fun and I have no intention to profit from this. Irrilia belongs to Myrling (whose DeviantArt page you should really check out if you haven't already. So awesome.)**

 **Note: This is the first time, I've written anyone else's OC before, but Myrling's Irrilia is way so adorable, I couldn't help it. I honestly think that they would all be so eager to teach her their names that she really would know them, but, for the purposes of this story, I thought that the color identification was cute and a good lead in to the punch line. Also, I've never written a story from the perspective of such a young character before, so I hope it came out right. Enjoy. (And, seriously, if you've haven't discovered this cute little OC, yet, you really should.)**

"Triangle. Can you say Triangle?"

Irrilia clapped enthusiastically as Purple held the picture in front of her. She loved it when Purple showed her shapes, colors and letters. Just when she'd thought she'd seen it all, he'd have a brand new one for her. So exciting.

"Triiiiaaaangle."

She giggled and he sighed, lowering the picture.

"Are you sure she can even talk yet, Donnie?"

Recognizing his voice, she craned her head to see, but couldn't quite make it around. Purple smiled, tapping her on the nose with his finger, before straightening to move towards the voice, his own fading as he went.

"Possibly. She's really quite remarkable though, so…"

Irrilia frowned. Where was he going? She wanted to go too.

Attempting to rise from her bouncy seat, she was shocked and infuriated to find herself locked in. With a little growl, she tugged on the straps to no avail. Then an idea struck. Leaning her head forward, she clamped one of the straps between her jaws, neatly snapping it in two. There were still more bindings, but she now had enough room to escape. Free at last!

Bouncing forward out of her seat, she landed with a quiet thump on the ground. Where to go first? Looking around, she could see through big metal doors to all the wonders within the room beyond the threshold. They glowed. They sparkled. She wanted them.

Determinedly crawling, she made her way up to and through the doors into the enormous room on the other side. All the wonderful things she wanted were high up on the table. She stretched to reach, but even balancing precariously on two legs, they were still too far.

Plopping back down on her bottom, she pouted. Until she noticed the stack of metal boxes full of colorful wires, next to the ledge she couldn't reach. As much as she wanted to chew on the wires now, she wanted the pretties up top more.

"Where the shell did she go?! Donnie, I thought you said this was baby-proof!"

"For humans. Irrilia is…"

"Stop! I don't want to hear it. We need to find her. Now!"

She could hear voices outside, but they weren't important. She had a goal. The metal boxes were stacked smallest on top to the largest on bottom, reminding her of steps. With a mischievous grin, she started her climb.

Up top was even more wonderful than it had appeared from afar. The crystalline containers were all full of lovely, colorful liquids that shimmered and glowed. She loved it.

Remembering how Purple had shown her, with her finger paints, that smearing red and blue together made purple, red and yellow made orange, and blue and yellow made green, she realized that putting two colors together could make new ones. What would she get if she put the glowing pink together with the shimmery black?

Positively quivering with anticipation, she crawled over to the tall, pink-filled container. Picking it up unsteadily in her small hands, she balanced on her knees to pour it into the kind-of-triangular, black-filled container. Bubbling, it released a puff of smoke.

She straightened to clap, lost her balanced and toppled backwards, landing with a soft whump onto the nearby chair, crying out in joy as it rolled back towards the door, falling when it hit the steps. She giggled as she rolled down the back of the chair onto the floor.

Again! Again! But it wouldn't get back up. Awww.

"Irrilia, I'm so glad…my lab!" Purple stopped reaching for her and darted into the room behind her.

Hmmm. What should she do now?

Oooh. She could see some shiny stuff on the table in the kitchen. She already loved the kitchen since that's where Orange fed her yummy treats. But now it had treasures. She had to have them.

KABOOM!

The loud sound behind her seemed to push into a tumbling somersault towards her new objective. Excited, she couldn't arrive fast enough. There they were. Big and silver and beautiful. But they were too high. She leaned on the stool next to her for support as she reached up. But it was still too far. She could reach the next rung of the stool though. With a gasp of inspiration, she began to climb.

Scrabbling up to the next level, her weight overbalanced the light stool, causing it to tip. Flailing one of her arms out, she caught a checkered towel, dangling down from the table, right where she could see the edges of her shiny prizes. The towel pulled towards her as she fell, bringing her treasures ever closer. They would come to her. How wonderful.

"Irrilia!"

She was momentarily puzzled by Orange's face as he leapt towards her. Usually he was smiling when they played. Why wasn't he smiling?

Grabbing her around the middle, he held her up as he skidded to the floor, the stool and shiny metal objects cascading down on top of him.

With joy, she gazed at her reflection in the big one covering Orange's head. An idea abruptly struck her and she grabbed up a big wooden spoon that had fallen with her shinies. Banging on the big shiny in front of her, she began composing an impromptu song.

Orange groaned and she fell through his loosening grip to plop back down on the floor. That's right, Orange was here and technically he had the shinies first. That was ok. She loved Orange and didn't mind letting him play with them first. She could come back and enjoy them later. But what should she do while she waited?

Looking around, she caught a glimpse of the big tree in the high room with the carpets. The tree was her favorite. Filled with a sudden desire to give her beloved tree a hug, she immediately set off, climbing up the steps.

"Mikey, I can't believe you let her get away!"

"Oww."

"Where is she now?"

"Sorry dude. The pots got me. Tell Sensei not to mourn me."

"Aargh! Spread out and keep looking."

Ignoring the voices behind her, she pulled herself up the last step, able to see the tree fully now. Chirping cheerfully, she scurried over and cuddled up against the roots at the base of the tree, where she loved to sit and watch everyone play. The tree made her feel happy. Her wide eyes trailed over the many leaves with rays of sunlight filtering through from above. So pretty.

As she followed the branches down, she saw something. The toy rack. Unguarded. No one ever let her play with it. But nobody was here to stop her now.

Eagerly crawling over, she balanced on two legs at the bottom of the rack, grasping at the chunk of wood, dangling off a chain. Her stubby fingers closed around it and she started to pull, trying to get the toy free.

"Irrilia!"

She turned around at the sound of Blue's voice, smiling. Wow his eyes were huge. Blue told her the most wonderful stories about Captain Ryan until he got yelled at. It was so funny.

She leaned towards him, losing her balance and pulling on her toy with her full weight. The wood on the chain came free. Or so she thought. It was still stuck. The toy rack was coming down. Well that would make it easier to sort through.

She watched it approach until Blue's arms wrapped around her and his shell blocked her view. The avalanche of toys clattered all around them. With a moan, he sat up, toys and toy rack spilling off of him.

Before she could grab at anything, he quickly lifted her up and away from all the goodies. No fair.

Then she looked up and saw a chain coming up from the pile, looped over a wall hook above her, just within reach. With a squeal of delight, she reached up for it, squirming out of Blue's grasp, just as she snagged it.

She and the chain tumbled towards the floor, until the chain abruptly pulled taut, dropping her lightly on the ground. She looked back at Blue and laughed. He was so funny wrapped up in the chain, moving about like an inch worm.

"Irrilia stay put."

He grabbed the chain around his shoulder with his teeth and began tugging on it. Amusing as he was, she didn't want to stay put. She wanted to explore. Indignant, she turned and crawled away.

"Irrilia! Irrilia, stop! Wait!"

Blue could find someone else to play with. Staying put wasn't for her.

She came out of the tree room and started following the ledge around it. Then she saw the big swing, shaped like a donut. Yay! She loved to be swung in it.

Excited, she shuffled along the edge towards it. Hmm. It was kind of far away. Maybe she could reach it if she stretched. Leaning over the edge, she reached as far as she could, but her fingers were still a little bit away. She stretched her arm farther and began to tumble forward. Ooh, water! And it was approaching so fast.

"Irrrrriiiiilllliiiaaa!"

Strong hands closed around her and she halted as the tip of her snout dipped into the water creating rippling circles in the water's surface. She giggled.

"Mikey! Stop filming and get me out of here!"

He flipped her around and she laughed Red, stuck upside down through the hole of the swing. He raised a brow ridge at her muffled giggles. She melted at the sight. Red was her favorite of favorites. No, not Red. He had a special name.

"Aww come on Raph, you're going to love this someday."

"Shut up Mikey!"

She reached out, placing her hands on his cheeks. "Daddy!"

His green eyes widened and he gasped.

"Awesome! I totally got her first words. Told you, you'd love this."

He smiled and pulled her in close to his comforting warmth. "Yeah, I really do."


End file.
